ACT-R Software Updates2020 ACT-R Workshop

Dan Bothell

Carnegie Mellon University

Overview

• Bug Fixes

• Changes that could affect existing models/code

• Performance Improvements

• Additions and changes that don’t affect existing models/code

• Pending issues and the Future

Bug fixes

• Production creation• Ordering and circularity issues with multiple !mv-bind! conditions or actions

• Production Compilation• Eliminates ‘duplicate’ !safe-eval! and !safe-bind! in composed productions• Better tests for matching productions

• Those that have !safe-eval! and !safe-bind!• Ordering issues in original productions

• Motor module tracks both current hand position and the position after the action completes• Fixes an issue with subsequent action getting the right features when actions started

with preparation free

• Setting both :v and :cmdt to the same filename works as expected now

Changes (procedural module)

• The :lhst actions are only scheduled if both :lhst and :v are true

• Production compilation now allows !safe-bind! on the LHS

• Internals of the compilation-type interface changed• If you created a custom type it’ll need to be updated

Changes (motor)

• Press-key action now checks that finger is in home row• Prints a warning, but still performs potentially wrong action

• All the move/point hand actions just warn when hand at target• Previously some would go through all the stages for a no-op

• New requests created with extend-manual-requests only available to models created after the call• Previously a reset would be sufficient

Changes (vision)

• Line features now have the orientation in the value slot• Both the location and object chunks

Changes (chunk commands)

• Extend-chunks added a :merge-values-fn option• Passed the current values for the chunks instead of the names

• Overwrite-buffer-chunk requested parameter is now optional instead of keyword to be consistent with set-buffer-chunk

Changes (external interface)

• The RPC add action has an additional optional parameter • If the command adds a Lisp-side macro now that macro can have the

parameters use the extended string encoding or not before sending them

• The AGI no longer sends a “clear” message to any visible virtual handlers

Changes (other)

• Scheduling commands can now be given nil as the action • Useful when only the details need to be displayed in the trace

• The “dummy” actions of show-buffer-copy, temporal-clear, no-visual-object-found, and find-loc-failure no longer needed

• In the full version, Lisp function objects (lambda and #'<name>) are no longer valid where it may be externally accessible• Scheduled actions, hook functions, module interface functions, etc

• Still allowed in the Lisp-only (single-threaded) mode

Change (motor actions)

• The trace output for preparation-complete, initiation-complete, and finish-movement now include the time of the request

0.485 MOTOR PRESS-KEY KEY V

0.735 MOTOR PREPARATION-COMPLETE 0.485

0.785 MOTOR INITIATION-COMPLETE 0.485

0.885 KEYBOARD output-key DEMO2 v

1.035 MOTOR FINISH-MOVEMENT 0.485

Changes (tutorial)

• All the unit models use a consistent representation of chunks for numbers and counting facts

(chunk-type number number next aural-rep visual-rep vocal-rep)

(one isa number number one next two aural-rep 1 visual-rep "1" vocal-rep "one")

(two isa number number two next three aural-rep 2 visual-rep "2" vocal-rep "two")

Performance

• Modules can create chunk-types and chunks at creation time instead of reset time• All the provided modules now do so

• Determination of whether an event’s trace should be displayed simplified

• Procedural module stores productions by buffer usage for matching• Only test the appropriate group

• Production compilation improvements• Finding if a matching production exists

• Tables to search to reduce tests

• Stores info at production creation time instead of lookup at every composition

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Additions (parameters)

• :add-production-hook• Called when productions are defined and passed the production name

• :ignore-buffers• Set to a list of buffer names • DM doesn’t store chunks from those buffers

• Hook parameters that have lists of commands can now have specific items removed instead of only removing everything • Pass a list with :remove and the command name

(sgp :conflict-set-hook (:remove some-hook-fn))

Additions (other)

• Most chunk and chunk-type commands now have remote versions

• The file recompile-act-r.lisp• Loads things as load-act-r.lisp does, but forces things to be recompiled

• The feature switch :dont-compile-actr• Uses existing compiled files only

• examples/creating-modules/external/simple_declarative.py• Replacement for declarative module sufficient to run unit 1 models

Issues

• Remote access to chunk parameters during merging • The chunks are locked during the merge and when parameters are accessed

• Full ACT-R performance under SBCL on (some?) Macs

Evaluation took:0.457 seconds of real time0.003262 seconds of total run time (0.001190 user, 0.002072 system)0.66% CPU1,645,054,546 processor cycles32,768 bytes consed

• PPM and production compilation

(define-model ppl-ordering(sgp :esc t :ppm 1)

(chunk-type test slot1 slot2)(define-chunks c1 c2)(set-similarities (c1 c2 -.9))

(set-buffer-chunk 'goal (car (define-chunks (slot1 c1))))

(set-buffer-chunk 'imaginal (car (define-chunks (slot2 c2))))

(p p1=goal>

slot1 =a=imaginal>

slot2 =aslot2 =c

==>+retrieval>

slot1 =a slot2 =c)

(p p2=imaginal>

slot2 =aslot2 =c

=goal>slot1 =a

==>+retrieval>

slot1 =aslot2 =c))

> (whynot)

Production P1 partially matches the current state:(P P1

=GOAL>SLOT1 C1

=IMAGINAL>SLOT2 [C1, C2, -0.9]SLOT2 C2

==>+RETRIEVAL>

SLOT1 C1SLOT2 C2

)

Production P2 partially matches the current state:(P P2

=IMAGINAL>SLOT2 C2SLOT2 C2

=GOAL>SLOT1 [C2, C1, -0.9]

==>+RETRIEVAL>

SLOT1 C2SLOT2 C2

)

Future

• Apple…